Johnson Probably Won’t Return Mariners Don’t Offer Contract Extension, Will Listen To Trade Offers

Randy Johnson probably has thrown his final pitch for the Seattle Mariners, who disclosed they will not offer their left-handed pitching ace a contract extension beyond next season.

The next move figures to be a trade.

Mariners general manager Woody Woodward said that he expects to listen to trade overtures from other clubs as soon as today. Woodward and his fellow general managers are in Scottsdale, Ariz., for their annual meetings.

“I like having Randy pitch every fifth day for us,” Woodward said. “But I’m going to start talking to other clubs tomorrow, listen to their ideas and entertain offers.”

Woodward said the Mariners haven’t ruled out keeping the left-hander through the 1998 season. He acknowledged that would be risky, because Seattle could lose Johnson to free agency and receive only a draft pick as compensation.

“We’re still weighing what we’re going to do,” he said. “That’s all I can say. I had one club approach me today. But I don’t think a lot of clubs know (he might be available).”

“If the season opened tomorrow, Randy would be our opening-night pitcher,” said Mariners president Chuck Armstrong.

The season, of course, doesn’t open for another 4-1/2 months, and when it does Johnson - now the most successful pitcher in team history - will begin the final year of a five-year contract that will pay him $6 million in 1998.

And when that season begins, will Johnson still be pitching for the Mariners?

Barry Meister, the agent representing the “Big Unit,” thinks not.

“They said they weren’t going to offer him a contract extension,” Meister said from Chicago. “Randy is as important a pitcher to a team as there is in baseball, and the Mariners have disavowed their desire to re-sign him. Randy’s in shock.”

On Wednesday, the day Ken Griffey was named the A.L.’s most valuable player, the M’s decided trying to extend a contract for Johnson - who became a 20-game winner for the first time this season - was impractical.

“We simply concluded that, at this time, what we think it would take for an extension is not a good investment,” Armstrong said. “A lot of players enter the final year of their contract in a similar situation. Greg Maddux did this year in Atlanta, and they re-signed him during the year.

“Our position with Randy isn’t cut and dry. He’s on our team, we’re paying him $6 million, and unless something changes, he will be our opening-night starter.”

Mariners executives have wrestled for months with a decision on Johnson, who turned 34 in September. A dominant power pitcher when healthy, his record is 75-20 since 1993.

In that same span, however, Johnson missed most of the 1996 season with a bad back, underwent corrective surgery and then, last year, missed four starts with tendinitis in his hand.

Though Meister insists he and the team never discussed numbers, Mariners sources made it clear Johnson was seeking a five-year deal worth an estimated $55 million. On a team with a projected 1998 player payroll of approximately $43 million, Johnson would get between $10 million and $12 million a year beginning in 1999.

“As a player, you hate to even think about losing Randy,” teammate Mike Blowers said, “but you can understand the business side of it. It’s tough to talk about giving a quarter of your payroll budget to one player.

“The downside is you might lose him. The upside, I guess, is that Randy should bring some serious talent back in any trade.”

Faced with the free agency of Joey Cora, Paul Sorrento and Roberto Kelly, Seattle has nearly $30 million next season committed to Griffey, Johnson, Jay Buhner, Edgar Martinez, Alex Rodriguez and Jeff Fassero, leaving about $15 million for the rest of the team.